Warren Harding

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First ascent. With some points of aid.

First ascent.

A huge multi-season ascent which involved numerous partners, lots of fixed gear and an incredible final 15 hour push through the night to complete the route.

Initially the team compromised Harding, Mark Powell and Bill Feuerer but when work resumed on the route in the autumn season Powell and Feuerer dropped out while Wayne Merry, George Whitmore, and Rich Calderwood joined the main team.

[Chris Jones, interviewing] The first ascent of the South Buttress of El Cap - the Nose - has been described, but is it true that you started this because you had been beaten by Robbins and party on the North Face of Half Dome?

Yes, it is true. The previous Fall, I was a member of the party that made the first serious attempt on the North West Face of Half Dome. I was not particularly impressed with the leader of this group (not Robbins), so I decided to form a party of my own. This turned out to be a truly splendid team: Powell, Harding, Dolt. However, when we reached the Valley in mid-June, we were taken aback and rather disgruntled to find that an excellent team of climbers, now led by Royal Robbins, had the matter of Half Dome North West Face well in hand.

In a fit of egotistical pique, we grumbled around the Valley for a couple of days, trying to figure out what to do. The solution was quite simple: any climb less than Half Dome was beneath us; only a greater climb would do 1 Our objective was rather obvious!

It soon became obvious, too, that we were getting in over our heads with the difficulties presented by El Cap. [1]

References

[1] Mountain 9 (1970), page 16

First ascent.

First ascent. With some points of aid.

A warm July, the concave face acting like a solar oven, and inadequate water supplies made for a notoriously thirsty first ascent.

"By the fourth day Yvon had lost so much weight from dehydration that he could lower his climbing knickers without undoing a single button. For the first time in seven years I was able to remove a ring from my finger, and Harding, whose legendary resemblance to the classical conception of Satan, took on an even more gaunt and sinister appearance." (Chuck Pratt)

References

[1] https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196533900/The-South-Face-of-Mount-Watkins

First ascent. With Dean Caldwell.

References

[1] Mountain 13 (1971), page 8

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Fp_gpsULI